All my stuff arrived this morning, at 8:30am its now 12:47pm Anyway Here's the specs: 480W Thermal Take Silent Power Supply Abit AV8 3RD Eye 939pin AMD64 3200+ 939pin 512mb Geil Golden Value Cas2.5 60GB 7200rpm HDD TI4200 64mb 32xCD-RW anyhow i took a long time building it, being very cautious of my new gadget anyway, i turn it on, it turns on perfectly.. except i have no video coming through, my monitor does not turn on at all. Now i have done the basic tests, i have tested my memory in another machine.. works fine. Tested my graphics card, works fine. Guru 3RD Eye is saying that i have all the correct voltages on all rails.. CPU is correctly mounted + HSF.. There are two LED's in the bottom right hand corner of my board, one is to say: Detected Power (Source).. 2nd is for when the system is on.. first one is green, second one is red.. i don't know if the second one should turn red or if it's an error.. anyway when i turn it on it runs perfectly for about 5 seconds then i get a very loud beeping from the motherboard speaker.. like the noise coming from a backing of a lorry.. one slightly high pitched and one slightly deeper beep, all as one beep (not seperate) On the motherboard it has a led clock, which posts a hex number for different errors, so if something doesnt work u can look at the led post on motherboard and you can refer to motherboard to see what problems is.. however when i turn mine on.. i get 03 (before i powered on - with electricity connected but not active) and then when i turn it on i get either 9.0 or 9.9) both of which i have looked up in manual and it does not have anything for 9.9, 9.0 is just saying Running Guru.. (which is fine) however 9.0 i am unsure of.. help new system, Abit support is not on over weekend and neither is my retailer for fucksake. ARGH!
Turns out that the error 9.0 Post code means the cpu is overheating.. according to Abit, however from searching the AMD, Abit and VIA forums i have found that the Abit AV8 3RD Eye comes with a bios version that does not support the new 90nm chips, hence why it is not working as it cannot detect my processor. So in order to fix this, i will have to get a 130nm AMD64 939Pin Processor and update my bios with that installed.. then remove the 130nm processor and reinstall my AMD64 3200+ 90nm 939Pin Processor. Do i have a spare 64Bit 130nm Processor 939Pin? NO! So i have had to find a computer shop that is willing to do it for me, as they will have the 130nm processor.. as i do not want to buy a spare 130nm processor.. no point.. So i took it to local shop said he'd do it for £25 - £30, said ooooo Abit yeah i wouldnt go for that, "WHAT!?" it's better performance wise than the MSI Neo2 Platinum for christ sake! (although only small marginally) (0.75%) Anyway i take it,. he says nice 1st build, i tell him what i do for a living and how many computers i have built and i then say so £5 - £10 yeah? He almost cried with shame. Prick.
Ah, yes, I've been hearing about these problems. Gotta love living on the edge, don'tcha. I might try the Radeon Xpress 200P the next time around, just for kicks. I'm getting pretty sick of nVidia's problems with CD and DVD burners...but until next year (at the earliest---unless I get sent something for review before), that's not happening. I've got other stuff to pay off/down first.
Lovely really lovely, just got a phone call from the PC shop that said they would flash and to say that they do not have any 939pin processors in stock. So i have had to destruct my new AMD64, put everything back in boxes as it was when it arrived and am having to wait for tomorrow when they open, and i can send them back. I am pretty sure via the number of posts on the internet that the 9.0 post signal is merely a signal suggesting that the cpu is not recognised because it is a winchester core. However there are other people who have had the same post signal and it has been other things, like reconnecting 12V or the P4 connection. Or waiting for the cmos to reset for 30 minutes, so i am unsure as to what exactly it maybe although i do have a good idea, subsequently i will phone support / technical and say i need to RMA the parts, i will send everything except my case ie: Memory / CPU / Motherboard that way i am covered.. and either ask them to flash the board and get it working, if they know thats the problem, if not then they can send me some new working parts. Very aggrevating, really not happy
I have now found a solution, i have to update my bios to atleast version 15 (i have version 12 or 13 i believe) so basically only ways of doing that are: 1.Hot Flash the bios chip (which i can't do due to the fact i do not have another removable bios chip thats pheonix award) 2.Remove it myself and send it to abit for a 1 week return with an updated bios (just cost of postage) 3.Return the whole board if not confident about removing the bios chip for £12 cost of delivery (not including cost of sending it to them) and send it to Abit for 1 week return. 4.Complain out rightly to my retailer, order them to either: 4.1 Replace the board with a replacement that has the latest bios on 4.2 Replace the bios chip on my board with one that has the latest bios on 4.3 Refund Me 4.4 Provide a choice of other simliar motherboards from different manufacturers. and with all of them, for them to pay for the cost of delivery (collection & return both ways) Hence i went with option 4 and have e-mailed technical / mangerial and sales with the same e-mail, with a quote from Abit stating what i have told them about the need for a bios update.
